Frank Body Resurfacing AHA Toner ingredients (Explained) (2025)

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Alcohol Free

Fragrance and Essential Oil Free

Anti-acne: Niacinamide

Cell-communicating ingredient: Niacinamide

Exfoliant: Glycolic Acid, Mandelic Acid, Lactic Acid, Malic Acid

Skin brightening: Niacinamide, Glycyrrhiza Glabra (Licorice) Root Extract

Skin-identical ingredient: Glycerin

Soothing: Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice Powder, Glycyrrhiza Glabra (Licorice) Root Extract

Other Ingredients

Water (Aqua)

Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. You can usually find it right in the very first spot of the ingredient list, meaning it’s the biggest thing out of all the stuff that makes up the product.

It’s mainly a solvent for ingredients that do not like to dissolve in oils but rather in water.

Glycolic Acid - superstar

What-it-does: exfoliant, buffering

• It’s the most researched AHA with the most proven skin benefits
• It gently lifts off dead skin cells to reveal newer, fresher, smoother skin
• It can help skin’s own collagen production that results in firmer, younger skin
• It can fade brown spots caused by sun damage or PIH
• Choose a product where you know the concentration and pH value because these two greatly influence effectiveness
• Don’t forget to use your sunscreen (in any case but especially so next to an AHA product)
• Slight stinging or burning with a stronger AHA product is normal
• If your skin is very sensitive, rosacea prone choose rather a BHA or PHA product

Read all the geeky details about Glycolic Acid here >>

Propanediol

Also-called: Zemea | What-it-does: solvent, moisturizer/humectant

Propanediol is a natural alternative for the often usedand often bad-mouthed propylene glycol. It's produced sustainably from corn sugar and it's Ecocert approved.

It's quite a multi-tasker: can be used to improve skin moisturization, as a solvent, to boost preservative efficacyor to influence the sensory properties of the end formula.

Sodium Hydroxide

The unfancy name for it is lye. It’s a solid white stuff that’s very alkaline and used in small amounts to adjust the pH of the product and make it just right.

For example, in case of AHA or BHA exfoliants, the right pH is super-duper important, and pH adjusters like sodium hydroxide are needed.

Niacinamide - superstar

Also-called: vitamin B3, nicotinamide | What-it-does: cell-communicating ingredient, skin brightening, anti-acne, moisturizer/humectant

• A multi-functional skincare superstar with several proven benefits for the skin
• Great anti-aging, wrinkle smoothing ingredient used at 4-5% concentration
• Fades brown spots alone or in combination with amino sugar, acetyl glucosamine
• Increases ceramide synthesis that results in a stronger, healthier skin barrier and better skin hydration
• Can help to improve several skin conditions including acne, rosacea, and atopic dermatitis

Read all the geeky details about Niacinamide here >>

Carrageenan

What-it-does: viscosity controlling

Mandelic Acid - goodie

What-it-does: exfoliant, antimicrobial/antibacterial

• Mandelic acid is an AHA that comes from bitter almond
• It can gently lift off dead surface skin cells and make the skin more smooth and even
• It has antibacterial properties
• It’s promising against acne and post inflammatory hyperpigmentation
• It’s light sensitive, so choose a product with opaque packaging

Read all the geeky details about Mandelic Acid here >>

Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice Powder - goodie

What-it-does: soothing, moisturizer/humectant

A spray-dried or freeze-dried version of Aloe Leaf Juice. The point of both drying methods is to make waterevaporate from the juice and leave just the "useful" components behind.

So the aloe powder hassimilarsoothing, emollient and moisturizing properties as the juice. You canread a bit more about the juicehere.

Glycyrrhiza Glabra (Licorice) Root Extract - superstar

You might know licorice as a sweet treat from your childhood, but it's actually a legume that grows around the Mediterranean Sea,the Middle East, central and southern Russia. It's sweet and yellow and not only used for licorice all sorts but it's also a skincare superstar thanks to two magic properties:

Nr. 1 magic property is that it has skin-lightening or to say it another way depigmenting properties. The most active part is called glabridin. The topical application (meaning when you put it on your face) of 0.5% glabridin was shown to inhibit UVB caused pigmentation of guinea pigs. Another study even suggested that licorice is more effective than the gold standard skin-lightening agent hydroquinone. All in all, licorice is considered to be one of the safest skin lightening agents with the fewest side effects.

Glycerin - superstar

Also-called: Glycerol | What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0

• A natural moisturizer that’s also in our skin
• A super common, safe, effective and cheap molecule used for more than 50 years
• Not only a simple moisturizer but knows much more: keeps the skin lipids between our skin cells in a healthy (liquid crystal) state, protects against irritation, helps to restore barrier
• Effective from as low as 3% with even more benefits for dry skin at higher concentrations up to 20-40%
• High-glycerin moisturizers are awesome for treating severely dry skin

Read all the geeky details about Glycerin here >>

Lactic Acid - superstar

What-it-does: exfoliant, moisturizer/humectant, buffering

• It’s the second most researched AHA after glycolic acid
• It gently lifts off dead skin cells to reveal newer, fresher, smoother skin
• It also has amazing skin hydrating properties
• In higher concentration (10% and up) it improves skin firmness, thickness and wrinkles
• Choose a product where you know the concentration and pH value because these two greatly influence effectiveness
• Don’t forget to use your sunscreen (in any case but especially so next to an AHA product)

Read all the geeky details about Lactic Acid here >>

Malic Acid - goodie

What-it-does: exfoliant, buffering

Malic acid comes from apple and is an AHA. If these magic three letters don’t tell you anything, click here and read our detailed description on glycolic acid, the most famous AHA.

So malic acid is an exfoliant, that can - just like other AHAs - gently lift off the dead skin cells of your skin and make it more smooth and fresh.

There is not much research out there about malic acid itself. We could find one comparative study, thatcompared the effectiveness of glycolic acid, lactic acid, citric acid and malic acid. The first two ones were the winners while malic and citric acid were less effective.

Phenoxyethanol

What-it-does: preservative

It’s pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, but even more importantly, it’s not a feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason paraben.

It’s not something new: it was introduced around 1950 and today it can be used up to 1% worldwide. It can be found in nature - in green tea - but the version used in cosmetics is synthetic.

Ethylhexylglycerin

What-it-does: preservative, deodorant

If you have spottedethylhexylglycerinon the ingredient list, most probably you will see there also the current IT-preservative,phenoxyethanol. They are good friends becauseethylhexylglycerincan boost the effectiveness of phenoxyethanol (and other preservatives) and as an added bonus it feels nice on the skin too.

Also,it's an effective deodorant and a medium spreadingemollient.

Potassium Sorbate

What-it-does: preservative

It's one of those things that help your cosmetics not to go wrong too soon, aka a preservative. It’s not a strong one and doesn’t really work against bacteria, but more against mold and yeast. To do that it has to break down to its active form, sorbic acid. For that to happen, there has to be water in the product and the right pH value (pH 3-4).

But even if everything is right, it’s not enough on its own. If you see potassium sorbate you should see some other preservative next to it too.

BTW, it’s also a food preservativeand even has an E number, E202.